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Typhoon - Taiwan and China
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Catastrophe Report 7
February 18th to August 7th 2005 |
Typhoon - Taiwan and China
| Territory: |
|
Taiwan and China |
| Region: |
|
Fujian and Zhejiang provinces (China) |
| Date: |
|
18 July 2005 |
| Event: |
|
Typhoon |
| Impact: |
|
In Taiwan, Haitang resulted in 14 deaths and
thirty injuries. Ninety percent of international flights were
cancelled, domestic travel was suspended, and 1.5 million homes
were temporarily without power. Agricultural losses in Taiwan
are estimated at US$127 million, with 45,179 hectares of crops
– mainly rice and fruit – destroyed and accompanying
losses of livestock, fisheries, lumber and facilities. In the
Chinese coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, twelve lives
were lost and 29,000 houses destroyed. The relatively low death
toll is probably a reflection of the evacuation of close to
a million people from coastal communities before the storm struck.
Economic losses are estimated at US$317 million in Fujian province
and a further US$657 million in Zhejiang. |
| Summary: |
|
Typhoon Haitang was the strongest storm to strike
Taiwan in five years. It made landfall at Hualien County on
July 18th as a category 3 storm, with sustained wind speeds
of 193 km per hour and gusts of up to 227 km per hour, and maintained
category 2 status as it crossed the island. Rainfall levels
reached 30 cm in northern Taiwan, and more than 100 cm in the
most mountainous regions, triggering flash floods, landslides
and mudflows. Severe flooding associated with the storm also
affected the south of the island, where Tainan county experienced
its worst flooding for half a century, and close to 800 rivers
were placed on orange alert. Typhoon Haitang briefly strengthened
to a category three storm before weakening to category 1 at
landfall on the China mainland. Haitang came ashore close to
the town of Huangqi in Fujian province, with sustained wind
speeds of 113 km per hour that dropped rapidly as the typhoon
was downgraded to a tropical storm as it headed inland towards
Hunan province. Gusting winds of up to 75 km per hour were recorded
in the major commercial centre of Shanghai, where heavy rains
also elevated rivers to dangerous levels. |
| Data sources: |
|
China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/home/index.html
Reuters Alertnet
http://www.alertnet.org/index.htm
|
| Additional sources:
|
|
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
http://www.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc.html
NASA Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12963
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